REPULSION

UK, 1965, 105 minutes, Black and white.
Catherine Deneuve, Ian Hendry, John Fraser, Patrick Wymark, Yvonne Furneaux.
Directed by Roman Polanski.

Repulsion is the first international film by celebrated Polish director Roman Polanski. After several short films, he made Knife in the Water in his native Poland which was a success at home and internationally. He made Repulsion in England in 1965. It immediately made him a name director, winning the Jury Prize in Berlin as well as the International Critics’ Prize. He was to make the strange Cul de Sac in the following year. After his attempt at a vampire film, tongue-in-cheek, The Fearless Vampire Killers, he again made the headlines with his version of Rosemary’s Baby. At that time, tragedy intervened in his life with the Manson killings, including his wife Sharon Tate – some of this being echoed in his film of Macbeth in 1971. Polanski continued to make classic films for another thirty years. Chinatown was an outstanding film noir. He starred in The Tenant, a film that could be seen in parallel with Repulsion about a repressed and isolated individual. He then made his version of Thomas Hardy’s Tess with Nastassja Kinski. He was less successful during the 1980s making the extravagant failure, Pirates, with Walter Matthau and the more successful thriller Frantic with Harrison Ford. He made only three films during the 1990s, Bitter Moon, the film version of the play Death and the Maiden and the supernatural thriller, The Ninth Gate with Johnny Depp. However, he won an Oscar as best director for his autobiographical The Pianist in 2002.

The screenplay for Repulsion was written by Gerard Brach who collaborated with Polanski in nine films over a period of twenty years. These include Tess, The Tenant, Bitter Moon.

The film was also a tour-de-force for Catherine Deneuve. She was emerging on the international scene with The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. She was also in a number of films by Francois Truffaut. She has continued a long career, being top-billed for over forty years as well as being the symbol Marianne, of France itself.

Here, only twenty-two, she portrays a repressed and isolated young woman who goes insane. The audience is invited to share in her fears, the visualising of her fantasies, especially sexual fantasies. She is supported by Ian Hendry and John Fraser.

This theme of madness and isolation continues as a theme throughout Polanski’s films – and in this way, Repulsion is somewhat prophetic.

1. The impact of this melodrama? Roman Polanski's skill in creating an atmosphere of madness, repression,, violence? Its importance in '60s cinema?

2. The work of Polanski: his Polish background, film-making? His move to England, to the United States? Repulsion seen in the retrospect of his career?

3. His choice of Catherine Deneuve for the central role? Her status in French cinema? In an English film? Her beauty, glacial sensuality, repression, madness? Character? Symbol?

4. The technical skill of the film: the quality of the black and white photography, the atmospheric photography, beauty, ugliness, violence? The atmosphere of London: the flats, houses, beauty parlour, restaurants, pubs, streets, the convent? The background of normal, recognisable England? London of the '60s? Movement, sound etc.? The contribution of the musical score - the range of instruments. melodies, sounds?

5. The special effects - especially for communicating madness: the rabbit in the fridge and its foetal look, the ever-numerous cracks in the wall, the bric-a-brac of the flat, the hallucinations, the phantom lover, the hands coming from the wall etc.? The visual violence - especially the killings - the editing (with the echoes of Hitchcock's Psycho etc.)? The horror effect of such intimate violence?

6. The musical score and its atmosphere: sounds (normal and abnormal), the convent bells, the telephone and other bells, the eerie sounds? The three musicians in the street - and their finally playing 'Waltzing Matilda'?

7. The different styles for the editing of reality, madness, Carol's deterioration?

8. The opening of the film and the focus on the eye, the credits coming and passing through the centre of the eye, the finale and the focus on Carol's eye again? From madness to madness? The transition to faces: ugliness and beauty, the mud-packs etc, Carol's concentration, the atmosphere of the beauty parlour like an embalming salon? Distortions? The door suddenly opening and normality entering with the chatter of the beautician? The film's constantly building up an atmosphere and distorting the mood?

9. Carol's room? Symbol of herself? Her boarding with Helen? Her clothes, neglect? Her reaction against Michael's things and his razor - and the suggestions with the close-up of the razor? The slovenliness in the house: the rabbit, the dirty singlet, wash-up, the sofa, the bath, the mess and dust? The eventual neglect, smell and Carol's appearance? The room visualising Carol's deterioration?

10. Carol's surface beauty: her work in the beauty parlour, the opening and her skills, the mask. the mud, the bustle? Images of oddity and seeming madness in the beauty parlour? The irony of the comments on beauty - and the deceit of Fire and Ice? Carol at home in the beauty parlour, at odds? Her violence on the customer's nails?

11. Carol and her dreaminess: at work, the gradual withdrawal from reality, the manager and her understanding and letting her go home?

12. Colin and the element of normality, the ordinary nice young man, his being in love with Carol? His friends and their comments -and his later reaction to their comments? The date at the cafe, Carol sitting outside it and his puzzle. his ringing her up, the fight, his coming to the flat and breaking the door down, the neighbour watching, the irony of his shutting the door and his death? Carol's inability to accept his attentions, her reaction to his kiss and wiping it from her mouth (and later Colin wiping his friend's mock kiss)? The comments of Colin's friends about Carol as a virginal tease?

13. The dramatics of the sequences between Carol and Colin? Her liking him, then avoiding him, emotionless response, the kiss, the effect of her wiping her mouth, her fear against him. looking at him through the spyglass in the door and distorting his face, her killing him and preserving him in the bath?

14. The indications of violence with the focus on Michael's razor? Carol's reaction to Michael? The listening to Michael and Helen making love, her thinking his presence ugly, the postcard and yet Michael as the man who saved her?

15. The contrast between Helen and Carol? The landlord on the phone mixing up the two sisters? Helen in herself. practical, living with Michael, wanting to preserve the relationship. the cooking of the rabbit, giving it up and going out, glamorising herself? The lovemaking and the attack on Carol about Michael? Pleading with Carol? Carol not wanting Helen to go away? The return, the shock at the state of the flat the dead bodies? The contrast between the two sisters?

16. The character of Michael, seeing him through Carol's eyes, through Helen's? His becoming more sympathetic as the film went on? The discovery of Colin's body? His carrying Carol to safety? The presence of his wife watching the flat, of ringing up and attacking Helen but actually attacking Carol?

17. The juxtaposition of the flat with the large convent? The nuns and their aura? Their laughter, playing ball? The timetable of the convent? The routine and the bell-ringing - the bell ringing in the middle of the night and its effect on Carol? Her sleeplessness? The virginal convent on one side and Helen and Michael making love on the other? Two facets of Carol's experience?

18. The landlord and his phone calls, visit, his entering and criticising the flat, the discussions and the attempts at seduction. the proposition and Carol's reaction? Carol's fears and the violent killing of the landlord? Leaving his body under the sofa? The effect on Carol and detaching her even more from reality? Patrick Wymark's skill in drawing the character of the lascivious landlord in such a quick time? Audience reaction to his death?

19. The increase of fantasies in Carol's mind? The cracks in the wall and her building coming apart, the phantom lover and the sensuality? The conscious repression? The compensation? Reality and unreality? The hands reaching out through the corridor walls? Carol hiding under the bed escaping from reality?

20. Carol's appearance of normality and deterioration? The interior madness taking over? Polanski's skill in creating a character in real situations, indicating to the audience what was wrong with her and showing her collapse? A cinematic attempt at portraying and communicating madness in the contemporary world?